SECOND CHANCES:

One of my greatest pleasures in my job is seeing peoples' lives changed from the time of our first meeting to the time of our subsequent meetings.

Last summer I was driving in my patrol car when I looked beside me to see a girl driving her car with that "straight ahead felony stare". Seated beside her in the passenger seat was a man who appeared to be either passed out or unconscious...and based on the size of the large smash in the windshield, my guess was that he was unconscious.

When I stopped them, I walked up to the car and noticed her face and legs were covered in blood...and his knuckles were shredded and bloody too. She was blitzed...and he was even more blitzed. They had earlier gotten into an argument because jealousies arose, so he punched the windshield and then smacked her around a bit.

I arrested both of them for various crimes. The girl was taken to a nearby hospital in an ambulance due to her extremely high blood alcohol level, but I had the great fortune of driving the guy in my patrol car to the same hospital due to his extremely high blood alcohol content as well.

On the way there, this guy (Steve) mother-F'd me up one wall and down another...called me everything but a gentleman...threatened to kick my a** (which he never followed thru on, by the way)...scolded me about having a small dick (I have no idea how he knew this one!)...and topped it off by peeing on my seat and floorboards, laughing the entire time.

Nice guy, eh?

Well, fast forward to Super Bowl sunday 2010. If I had to work, somebody was going to jail...and I thought of just the right person to go there! You guessed it! By this time, I had a multi-count arrest warrant for him, so I went hunting him down with a couple good officers from a local police department.

Long story short -- we tracked him down. Before we caught up to him though, we got information that he was hanging with one of his buddies at his buddy's house nearby. We went there, but Steve was long gone because his father called him and told him the State Police were looking for him and he was F'd! (Funny stuff...true story!)

When I searched the buddy's house, I opened a locked room and the first thing I saw upon entering was what was in the picture you see above. It was a huge (weighed at least 5 pounds and was about a foot and a half long) meat cleaver wedged between the bedrail/frame and the boxspring mattress. Thankfully, Steve -- the guy who wanted to kick my tail last summer -- wasn't there to meet me with the cleaver.

Anyway, after Steve ran around the block a few times, the locals found him on a side street. He ran about 15 feet before they tackled him.

Once I arrived where they found and arrested him, I transferred him over to my set of handcuffs and placed him in my patrol car...the same one he peed in about 6 months prior. When climbing in, Steve says, "Wow, I've never been in this police car before. Man, I peed on your seat last time you arrested me, do you remember that? (Like I'd forget, right?) Dude, I'm such a dick, I'm sorry, man."

Wow!

On the way to the jail, Steve and I had a long conversation about life. He said he needed prison time so he could get himself cleaned up from his disastrous addictions. "My life is done, man. I'm finished. I'm a loser. I'm just gonna jump off a bridge one day and end it all."

"Do you believe in God, Steve?"
"Yeah."
"What do you think will be the outcome after you die and stand before Him?"
"I'm F'd."
"Well, while you're still alive, you have a second chance...not only to clean up your physical problems, but to be in right standing with God. But once you're dead, there are no more chances, Steve."

The conversation continued and I took a few minutes to explain the gospel of Christ to him in terms of a criminal needing a defense attorney when standing before a judge. Big tough Steve, tears in his eyes, quietly whispered through a quivering chin, "Thank you", but wouldn't look at me. I understood.

He accepted a bible I offered him (a gospel of John I keep in my car with me, available through The Pocket Testament League). When we arrived at the jail, I had a little bit of paperwork to do, so I left him handcuffed to a holding bench. When I returned about 5 minutes later, Steve was seated on the bench quietly reading the gospel of John. When I returned with the jailer another 5 minutes later, Steve, still reading, asked the jailer, "Can I take this in the cell with me?"

These are the moments that give me great pleasure in my job -- meeting people who recognize their badness and their need of a Savior. I love to see positive changes in people, however slight. It is a sign that God's Spirit is dealing with them.

God, please save Steve. Right now. In jail. Holy Spirit, may your Word pierce the deepest, most wounded recesses of his soul.

BUD LIGHT - "Clothing Drive" Commercial:

"THE WORD OF PROMISE" NEW TESTAMENT AUDIO BIBLE: (review)

“The Word of Promise” audio bible is a great idea for audio bibles. It incorporates the multi-voice narration of scripture accompanied by sound effects (coffee pouring into a cup, walking, crowds cheering/talking, birds chirping, etc) and orchestral music.

LIKES:
One of the great aspects of this resource is that one reader/actor is assigned to one biblical writer throughout the entire New Testament. For example, all of the Paul’s letters were read by Stacy Keach, and all of John’s were read by Louis Gossett Jr. I thought these two men did a fantastic! They read as though they were part of the story, rather than simply readers of a story.

DISLIKES:
On the other hand, having one reader assigned to certain characters can be a double-edged sword, especially if you don’t care much for the reader’s style. For example, Jim Caviezel (you’ll probably know him best for his outstanding role in “The Passion of the Christ”) read all of Jesus’ words and I honestly don’t think he portrayed a very good audio-Jesus. He frequently read without what should have been the necessary emotions, and he often read in that airy, gentle, monotone style that so frequently characterizes portrayals of Jesus. Not a 5-star performance, unfortunately.

SUMMARY:
I expected this audio bible to be produced in a radio-theater style, since the preview boasts, “Hear the Bible Come Alive in Dramatic Audio Theater”. I was a little disappointed about that, but many of the performer’s readings made up for the difference. Just don’t expect the quality of audio drama like you hear in “Adventures in Odyssey”, because this isn’t it. It’s simply more of a dramatic reading than an audio theater.

All-in-all, however, I liked this audio bible and am sure others will as well. With a few tweaks in future editions, this could be a knock-out resource for young and old audiences alike!

I am a book review blogger for Thomas Nelson Publishers.

WHAT WOULD YOU DO?

Today at work we handled/investigated a traffic crash resulting in the death of a 20-year old single mom. It was pretty greusome and horrific, so I'll spare the details. But as I held the dummy end of a measurement device for 2 1/2 hours, I had plenty of time to think once again about the brevity and frailty of life. Here are some of the questions that came to mind (I'll pose them in the 3rd person form):

If you were to wake up tomorrow morning and a revelation given to you that you would die later in the day at a specific time, would you do anything different?

What if the same scenario revealed you'd die in a week...a month...a year?

What if you only knew a general date and not a specific time and date of your pending date with death? Would it affect the decisions you'd have to make, or the things you'd want to do?

Would you make a wrong relationship right again?
Would you tell somebody off who has always bullied you?
Would you hug your loved-ones extra hard the next time you saw them?
Would you do that thing that you've always been afraid to try?
Would you apologize for a wrong you'd done?
Would you pig out on a favorite junk food, suspecting it no longer mattered?

SHOULD CHRISTIANS DEMAND A "DON'T ASK DON'T TELL" POLICY?

Well, as is typically the case with sensitive issues in our society, Christians are once again up-in-arms (already) about a hot-button issue that hasn’t even fleshed itself out yet. In President Obama’s State of the Union address, he declared his intentions/desires to eliminate the “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” policy in the US government.

I’m going to stand against…yes, you read that correctly…against the mainstream Christian community on this one. Here’s why:

1. Many Christians are already claiming, “Well, we can’t allow homosexuals to serve in the military. It is sin, and our government cannot condone sin.”

I don’t think we ought to play the “sin” card here. Adultery, foul language, lying, course joking, stealing, etc (just look at the Apostle Paul’s letters) are also sins…and we’re not expelling troops from the military for committing those ones. If we plan to encourage enforcement upon one type of sin, then we must be consistent to encourage enforcing them all. And if we did that we’d have to dismantle our military because nobody would be left to serve. And I’m quite certain many of those expelled soldiers found in violation of a banned sin would be Christians.

So, don’t play the “sin” card.

2. Other Christians have protested, “Why would you allow someone of one gender to sleep and shower with people of the same gender to which s/he is attracted? You wouldn’t allow a straight man to sleep and shower with straight females, would you? That is the sex to which we are attracted and by which we are aroused.” (You get the idea.)

I don’t think we can/should play the “arousal” card in this case, either. Here’s why: Simply because I am attracted to women does not mean I’m aroused (or will be aroused) by any and every female I see naked. Trust me, we’ve all seen ‘em in pictures and they do nothing for me. I’m sure the same goes for women. I’ll be the first to admit (you can attest to this, you’ve seen my mug shot) that I’m not slaying the ladies, causing them to pass out foaming at the mouth when I pass by. I know not every female is attracted to me, and certainly not every female is going to be aroused by seeing me naked or by sleeping in the same room as me.

In the same manner also, just because you’re in the vicinity of a gay man does not mean he’s automatically attracted to you just because you have the “packaging” he prefers with his shipping orders. Don’t flatter yourselves!

So, don’t play the “arousal” card.

3. I’m quite certain that just because gay and straight men (same goes for women) might share common showers in military barracks that the gay men aren’t entering a man-packed room of showers at just the right time with a raging boner looking for their next sexual conquest. If they’re like any other guy on the planet (gay or straight), they probably walk into the showers, purposefully avert their eyes so as not to cause discomfort, carry on their business, and be done with it. It’s a societal norm, and it’s probably as equally true in the gay circles as it is in the hetero ones.

So, don’t play the “shower” card.

4. In my line of work (police work), there are several…and I do mean several…homosexuals. I’m used to it. It doesn’t mean I condone it, but it means I’m used to it and I can still carry on friendships and business with them although I don’t like their choices. After all, I fully recognize that not everybody agrees with all of my life’s choices either...and we still have to work together. It’s called maturity.

I think most officers pretty well know which of their co-workers are gay/lesbian and which are not. I’m pretty smart and observant. I don’t need the government to help reveal to me what I already suspect. Would it change my perception of the person if I found out? Most likely not, because I already had a hunch in the first place. I personally think if s/he has the abilities to back me up in an arrest, a fight, or a gun battle (or anything else, for that matter) then I’ll be thankful they fought by my hide. I can tell you confidently that I’d never turn away their help in the middle of a poop storm.

So, don’t play the “revelation” card.

So, to wrap things up, here’s my humble suggestion to my fellow Christians. Worry about, concern yourself with, and address your own sins. If you’re anything like me, you’ve got enough problems/sins in your own life to worry about, let alone worrying about what everybody else is doing. I think Jesus addressed that in His whole, “speck-and-plank” analogy.

What say you?

MY NEW FAVORITE COMMERCIAL (WALMART CLOWN):

A POLICE OFFICER'S DREAMS:

I often have these crazy police officer dreams of all sorts and varieties, and they always involve me in a shooting scenario. I have noticed a trend of repetitious events, bo I'm sure there's some Freudian bent behind it. Here are those commonalities.

1) Whenever I have to fire my weapon, one of a few things always happens (or never happens, depending on the circumstances):

(a)when I pull the trigger, the hammer doesn't fall and the gun won't fire;

(b)when I pull the trigger, I cannot actually pull the trigger strongly enough to get the hammer to move into action;

(c)when I pull the trigger, and if the gun fires, the bullet flies in a curve-ball fashioin and I miss my bad-guy target;

or (d)I hit my intended bad-guy target and the bullets are ineffective.

2) I ALWAYS get hit somewhere in the body (usually my back or my face) by the bad-guys bullet, but I NEVER die (or I recover quickly).

3) Someone else finishes the job (of getting the bad guy) that I could not finish myself.

4) The theme usually involves me stepping in on someone else's behalf, like I'm trying to be the hero of the story...but in the end, I discover I was the original "victim" needing my own help in the first place;

5) The bad guy and I never fight hand-to-hand combat. He always uses a gun against me, and I against him;

6) Which leads me to my final commonality: the bad guy is always a man, never a woman.

Crazy -- I know -- but it happens often...almost nightly. I've talked to other troopers and police officers and some of their dreams differ greatly. One of my friends dreams that he ALWAYS hits his bad-guy target and that his bullets ALWAYS work, but his bad guy never dies.

Anybody have any insight as to why I have these crazy dreams? Is it about a security/insecurity issue? Is it a confidence issue? Or am I simply crazy? Or normal?